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Review: Dangerous Games by Danielle Steel

(A huge thanks to Pan Macmillan India for sending me this book in exchange for an honest review.)

Television correspondent Alix Phillips dodges bullets and breaks rules to bring the most important news to the world from riots in America to protests on the streets of Tehran. With her daughter in college, and working alongside cameraman Ben Chapman, a deeply private ex-Navy SEAL, Alix revels in the risks and whirlwind pace of her work. But her latest assignment puts her at the center of an explosive story that will reshape many lives, including her own: investigating damning allegations involving the vice president of the United States, Tony Clark.

Alix starts with a nationally revered woman who may be the key to exposing frightening secrets. Olympia Foster is the fragile, reclusive widow of America's most admired senator, who had been destined for the presidency before an assassin's bullet felled him. Since then, Olympia has found emotional support from Clark, who once wanted her as his wife and now stands as her protector and confidant. When Alix begins to dig deeper, federal agents pick up the trail. Then the threats begin.

As the stakes rise in this dangerous game, Alix needs Ben's help as never before. And soon they realize they are grappling with an adversary far more sinister than they had imagined.

Even though Alix is the main character in the story she wasn't my favourite. The characters I really enjoyed reading about were Olympia Foster and Alix's daughter. I found them to be the most believable characters of the lot who had various qualities- both good and bad. Olympia's charcter development is the most interesting. She is wife who's still grieving the death of her husband and stuck in his memories. As the story progresses she grows wonderfully and I really loved getting to know her thoughts and feelings.

I loved how Alix was strong and independent but I was a bit tired of the number of times we were told that she was brave and fiercely independent. It was shown too but there was so much repetition of her qualities and personality that it got a bit tiring.

I enjoyed the romance in the story. It was subtle and never became the focal point of the story but is there in a comforting manner. I also enjoyed all the mother-daughter relationships in the book. I love seeing the role of family in books!

It's been a while since I read a political thriller and I quite enjoyed reading Dangerous Games. The story is centered around a particular mystery but there are various other stories interwoven too. While the mystery is political it isn't overtly so, making this quite a light read. The plot was quite a bit predictable after a certain point but it never got boring. Even after the climax of the main plot, I really liked it that the author gives us glimpses of what happens with each character after that. We get to see how people have moved on from the main story and are leading their lives in the aftermath.

The language used is quite simple and straightforward but at times the PoV seemed to shift abruptly confusing me for a couple of seconds but it always cleared up quick. But I quite enjoyed the simple writing and was able to read the whole book in a couple of hours.

- Certain characters

- The simple language

- Most of the plot

- The character development of Olympia foster

- The predictable plot points

- The shifts in PoV

- The handling of certain characters (the way they were written)

This was my very first Danielle Steel book and while it had its flaws, I ended up enjoying this short, fast paced political thriller with some wonderful characters.